Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Adam Felber speculates on how the former Mayor of Cincinnati might revitalize the Democratic Senate delegation if he succeeds in his current run for that office:

June 26, 2005 - Springer Forces Health Care Reforms

Testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee, the 350-pound man shifted uneasily in his chair and pointed at his wife. "She don't love me," he complained, "and I gotta hear her listen to her in the other room every night, making love to that trashy lesbian lover of hers!" The lover in question, lapsed nun Helen McMunty, screamed, "Who you callin' trashy?" and launched herself at her obese accuser while her lover sobbed. Congressional pages hurried to break up the fracas.

"Such was the scene today as Senator Springer (D - OH) made health care reform hearings into headline news. The hearings, which Springer dubbed "I'm Trapped in a Bad Marriage to Keep My Insurance" garnered the highest ratings in CSPAN history, forcing Senate Republicans to help pass universal heath coverage for all Americans...

This is the work of a trained, professional comic. Don't try this at home.

But seriously -- say Springer actually tried that approach. Would that be much worse than what the party currently has? Consider:
polls show that national security is a poor issue for the Democrats; they are just trusted less by the public at large
than the Republicans. And that raises questions: Should the party work to publicize the lapses and failures of the
current administration? Or should it try to put together and publicize its own credible, alternative vision?
The obvious answer, from where I sit, is "both". But then I think back to all those NPR chats with Respected
Political Analyst Cokie Roberts, where she blithely restates what seems to be conventional wisdom: that the Dems
should do neither, and just turn tail and run on something else, because, hey, the polls show it's not their issue.
As if only a fool would dream of changing that...